Global Retailer Builds an Omnichannel Customer-centric model with SAP S/4HANA® Cloud ERP
In today’s fast-paced retail landscape, delivering a consistent, customer-centric experience across all channels is no longer optional - it’s essential. Over the past two decades, Rizing has partnered with more than 100 companies to drive digital transformation through SAP ERP solutions. One standout success story comes from a global fashion brand headquartered in the Netherlands, which embarked on a bold journey to unify its operations and elevate customer engagement.
In this blog, we delve into how SAP S/4HANA helped this brand overcome legacy system limitations, streamline operations, and build a scalable omnichannel model.
This global fashion brand is based in the Netherlands and operates in retail, full-price outlets, B2C, and B2B. They also have a significant franchise business. In partnership with Rizing, they initiated a largescale SAP-enabled business transformation to standardize their business processes. Initially, this work focused on enhancing the retail direct-to-consumer channels and finance operations and using consumer data to create a seamless omnichannel experience.
They later worked on streamlining planning systems, procurement, manufacturing, and B2B operations from a downstream perspective. Objectives included:
- Streamline the company's global retail processes
- Enhance stock visibility and inventory management for omnichannel retailing
- Enhanced wholesale processes at a later stage
Customer Overview
Location: Netherlands | Line of Business: Apparel, Accessories
Rizing Solutions: Fashion Suite, Reference Solution, Managed Services
SAP Solutions: SAP S/4HANA for Fashion and Vertical Business, SAP Customer Activity Repository, SAP Process Integration (PI) and Orchestration (PO), SAP Point of sale by GK
Use Case 01: Legacy Technology Limits Business Growth
THE BUSINESS PROBLEM
The client's legacy ERP system was approaching the end of support. Their decentralized retail systems kept them from standardizing and streamlining processes, leading to operational inefficiencies and high TCO. The client was also reliant on decentralized retail ERP and POS solutions.
This hindered operational efficiency and made understanding customer insights, trends, and buying patterns across different channels difficult. The company had extensively customized its legacy solutions, which made business expansion or engaging with new franchise partners hard.
THE SOLUTION
Roadmap: We collaborated to create a roadmap to sunset legacy apps. We introduced a transition state architecture to minimize technical debt. The new architecture used S/4HANA and CAR to enable direct-to-consumer and finance operations.
With the plan in place, we followed the roadmap and transitioned core functionalities from the existing platform to S/4HANA.
Standardization: We collaborated with a POS partner to create a solution template that can integrate with the S/4HANA and CAR landscape. We integrated this template into the roadmap in all regions. This allowed the client to move from decentralized store systems to a centralized platform.
The centralized setup enabled more efficient customer service and a better understanding of their customer's needs and behaviors.
Global Template: We used the global template to design a future state for supply chain, wholesale, D2C sales channels, and finance. The key was to implement standardized processes and standard technology across the organization. The customer now enjoys smoother personnel onboarding, better training, and streamlined solution support.
We tailored the global template to meet legal, tax, and statutory requirements in the 29+ countries where the client operated, encompassing both their owned and operated businesses and their franchise ventures. This comprehensive approach ensured readiness for seamless expansion and operation on a global scale.
Use Case 02: Omnichannel Enablement Difficulty
THE BUSINESS PROBLEM
Our client wanted to understand consumer buying patterns across channels better to improve and expand their service. For instance, they wanted to offer an endless store aisle experience and let customers return purchases anywhere.
The client struggled to get a holistic view of inventory in all regions and sites. This made it difficult to:
- Manage stock levels
- Serve consumers in a seamless and timely manner
- Improve customer satisfaction and brand loyalty
THE SOLUTION
Single Customer View: We used SAP S/4HANA and SAP CAR to establish a unified, 360-degree consumer view. This approach consolidated all orders from all sales channels for each consumer in one place, providing insights into shopping patterns across all markets.
Consumer Loyalty Platform: We implemented a consumer loyalty platform and a way to capture in-store activity, enriching the single consumer view. Using this integration, the client can target promotions to specific markets or consumer groups, supported by what-if analysis and pricing simulations for maximum profits.
Inventory View: Rizing's consultants replacing the legacy decentralized ERP with SAP CAR and S/4HANA to create a centralized, aggregated view of merchandise and stock protection.
SAP's Order Management System engine could now create consumer orders from the most suitable site within the client's network. Using RFID technology in the stores improved inventory tracking and order fulfillment.
This setup is positioned to connect to other platforms in the future to allow features like replenishment planning and assortment management.
Use Case 03: Revamping Store Operations for Consistent Customer Experiences
THE BUSINESS PROBLEM
The client's legacy ERP platform had limitations in-store logistics, merchandise management, and handheld connectivity, which hurt their consumer service levels. The store's physical inventory process relied on an inaccurate, flat-file exchange between systems that often-required recounting.
Ticketing and labeling used another third-party solution, which required manually loading data into the legacy printing application. The process caused delays at the storefront, making reticketing for price updates or replacing missing labels difficult.
THE SOLUTION
Store Operations: Rizing implemented standard store operations applications for store personnel's day-to-day activities. We customized these applications to accommodate specific needs. This enabled accurate inventory and pricing visibility from any device, a significant improvement over the previous local POS and offline handheld devices.
Rizing consultants streamlined the process for more dynamic scenarios with carton versus individual goods receipts. We integrated exception handling into the process - traffic transfers and returns could now be initiated from in-store devices. We enhanced storefront services like assisted sales, helping consumers find similar styles or specific products at nearby stores.
RFID Integration: We designed and introduced RFID integration in the global template with plans for rollout to other stores and regions. This implementation eliminated the manual download and update of files, leading to faster and more accurate stock figures.
Ticketing & Labeling: We used SAP S/4HANA for Fashion as the single source of product, site, and pricing data. We made it available on-demand for consuming applications and systems. This eliminated manual data extraction and uploading to ticketing handhelds.
The SAP S/4HANA solution also facilitated reticketing for products slated for outlets. They could now be directly sent to in-network outlet stores without stopovers at local or central distribution centers for repacking or relabeling.
Building a Future-Ready Retail Model with SAP S/4HANA Cloud ERP
This global fashion brand’s transformation demonstrates how modernizing with SAP S/4HANA and Rizing’s expertise can unlock operational efficiency, omnichannel capabilities, and real-time insights. By moving away from fragmented legacy systems and adopting a unified platform, the brand achieved streamlined processes, improved inventory visibility, and elevated customer experiences across all channels.
In today’s retail environment, agility and scalability are essential to meet evolving consumer expectations and market dynamics. At Rizing, we’ve partnered with multiple fashion brands to deliver successful SAP S/4HANA Fashion transformations, creating a foundation for integrated operations and data-driven decision-making. With the right technology and strategy, retailers can innovate faster, adapt to market shifts, and grow without limitations.